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Marxist Class Theory for a Skeptical World

Series:

Marxist Theory of Class for a Skeptical World is a critique of some of the influential radical theories of class, and presents an alternative approach to it.

This book critically discusses Analytical Marxist and Post-structuralist Marxist theories of class, and offers an alternative approach that is rooted in the ideas of Marx and Engels as well as Lenin and Trotsky.

It presents a materialist-dialectical foundation for class theory, and conceptualizes class at the trans-historical level and at the level of capitalism. It shows that capitalism is an objectively-existing articulation of exchange, property and value relations, between capital and labour, at multiple geographical scales, and that the state is an arm of class relation. It draws out implications of class relations for consciousness and political power of the proletariat.

Biographical Note

Raju J. Das, Ph.D., Ohio State University, is an Associate Professor at York University. He has published the monograph
A Contribution to the Critique of Contemporary Capitalism (Nova Publishers, 2014), and articles in many journals, including
Capital and Class and
Science and Society.

Review Quote

"While most of the 'Left' seems to have forgotten about class, class has not forgotten about us. For it continues to divide all of us in ways that lead to our worst problems, but also - when properly understood - to their only adequate solution. Enter Raju Das, who makes the most impressive case I've seen for why this assault on class misrepresents Marx, but, even more important, badly distorts the workings of the oppressive system in which we live, voiding any serious attempt to replace it with a better one. The subject of this book could not be more important, particularly now, and both Das' scholarship and his politics in dealing with it receive
highest Marx from this reader." – Professor Bertell Ollman,
Department of Politics, NYU, author of
Alienation &
Dance of the Dialectic"This book is a
tour de force. It offers a bold, detailed, compelling, and historically grounded examination of the Marxian concepts of class, class relations and class exploitation, and the different ways in which they have been understood in the literature. In doing this, Raju Das demonstrates the relevance of Marxist political economy, the centrality of class for understanding economic, social and political outcomes in the current age of neoliberal capitalism, and the continuing necessity of class analysis and class activity for social transformation." – Alfredo Saad-Filho,
SOAS University of London"An extensive and thorough exposition of the Marxist theory of class that answers criticisms, especially post-structuralist, while offering its own alternative based firmly in Marxism." – Professor Richard Peet,
Graduate School of Geography, Clark University"Offering a careful immanent critique of Analytical and Post-Structuralist Marxisms, Raju Das persuasively argues that orthodox Marxist class analysis supplies the best framework for understanding the rapacity of contemporary capitalism, as well as the best—indeed, the only—strategy for revolutionary social transformation. Of particular value are his insistent yoking of class theory to political economy; his view of class as both a relation and a process; and his skillful deployment of such fundamental concepts as materialism, dialectics, and totality. Amidst the plethora of recent approaches to social and cultural theory that purport to decenter or marginalize class struggle as the fundamental contradiction shaping the world today, or that substitute a focus upon neoliberalism for an examination of capitalism itself, Das’s book stands out for its rigor and eloquence. This book is just what our “skeptical world” needs to hear." – Barbara Foley, Distinguished Professor of English,
Rutgers University, Newark

8 Subsumptions of Labour by Capital: Theory of Capitalist Class Relation from an International Perspective ... 340
1 How is Capitalism Conceptualized? ... 342
2 Formal and Real Subsumptions of Labour as Forms of Capitalist Class Relation ... 345
3 Transition from Formal Subsumption, and the Mediation of Class Struggle ... 353
4 Imperialism, Subsumption of Labour under Capital, and Class ... 359
5 Misconceptions about Subsumption of Labour and Dominant Contradiction in Modern Society ... 367
6 Summary, and Theoretical and Political Implications ... 376

9 The Capitalist State as Constitutive of Capitalist Class Relation: Class Exploitation and Political Oppression ... 391
1 The Capitalist State and the Capitalist Class Relation ... 392
2 Democratic State Form and the Capitalist Class Relation ... 399
3 Capitalist Class Relations and Barrier to Working Class Access to State Power ... 402
4 Conclusion ... 409